.: 2.4 MW solar installation at Pearl Harbor Naval Base

Friday, June 3, 2011

2.4 MW solar installation at Pearl Harbor Naval Base

Of my 21 years in the U.S. Navy, I had the good fortune to spend 11 of them home ported in Pearl Harbor. There are many things that I remember about the islands... the beauty, the surf, scuba diving off Electric Beach, rainbows, and lots of sunshine.

Sunshine feels different in Hawaii. It's almost as if it either has a weight of its own or a downward, vertical breeze. Since Pearl Harbor is in a much lower latitude (21 degrees, 20 minutes North), sunlight is much more direct. Because of this high angle of the sun, there is less atmosphere to diffuse its energy. All of these factors combine to enhance the effectiveness of photo-voltaic (PV) arrays.

The following article from PV Magazine reports on a very large PV installation recently completed at Joint Base Hickam - Pearl Harbor:

http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/24-mw-solar-installation-at-pearl-harbor-naval-base_100003110/

2.4 MW solar installation at Pearl Harbor Naval Base
03. June 2011, By: Jonathan Gif

DRI Energy and Niking Corp. install SolarWorld photovoltaic panels on five key buildings at the historic US Naval Base.

Five rooftop solar energy systems worth 2.4 megawatts have been installed by the US military, as part of base improvements at the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor now know as Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham. The project cost $15 million and was funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The solar systems where engineered, procured and installed by California-based DRI Energy working with Hawaii-based Niking Corp. The installation uses solar panels from SolarWorld, produced in their Californian and Oregon facilities. The solar panels have been installed but final configuration will be completed in the coming months.

The solar systems were installed over five buildings including a historic quarters, built in 1927; a headquarters building from the 1940s; and an on-site shopping and supplies center. The power produced will be enough to supply 440 homes.

The installation was part of the US military’s project to increase its energy independence using renewable energy technology that requires no fuel, parts, maintenance and produces no emissions or noise. SolarWorld’s Kevin Kilkelly said that it was gratifying to see the installation help power one of the world’s best know and historic military sites. “In that light, these projects may be the best signs yet of the nation’s embrace of domestic solar technology.”

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About this blog

This blog serves as a resource for current articles, ideas, products, websites, and blogs about alternative energy and other "green issues."

I am a 21-year veteran of the U. S. Navy Submarine Service, serving as an Electronic Technician, Electronic Material Officer, and Master Training Specialist.

I teach Tidewater Community College's new Alternative Energy course. I have been interested in alternatives to fossil fuels for many years. I love teaching about this exciting new growth field.

Commitment to using alternative energy will benefit the environment and free US foreign policy from being concerned with the availability of oil from other countries.

Contact me at brucebremer@cox.net.

Go green energy,

Bruce Bremer, MBA

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Alternative Energy Quotes

Not only will atomic power be released, but someday we will harness the rise and fall of the tides and imprison the rays of the sun.

THOMAS A. EDISON

The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

ECCLESIASTES 1:6

You can drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, on every continental shelf and atop every hill in America for that matter, and you still won't reverse the fact that our oil production is in permanent decline. We're just sopping up what's left, digging ourselves into a deeper hole.

CONGRESSMAN ROSCOE BARTLETT (R-MD) “A tank of gas, a world of trouble,” Chicago Tribune

The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.

RALPH NADER

To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.

BARACK OBAMA

But we shall not satisfy ourselves simply with improving steam and explosive engines or inventing new batteries; we have something much better to work for, a greater task to fulfill. We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever.

Nikola Tesla

We've embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil. Embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide range of fuels or ignore reality and slowly—but surely—be left behind.

MIKE BOWLIN chairman and CEO of ARCO (now BP)

Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, is the crack cocaine of the developing world.

ALAN ZAREMBO, L.A. Times

But for all the talk, clean-burning coal will likely remain an oxymoron for years to come. The utility industry, which uses coal to generate 52% of its electricity, faces formidable political, economic and technological obstacles to getting "clean." … Coal contains dozens of noxious chemicals, including lead, arsenic and other heavy metals; sulfur dioxide, which creates acid rain; nitrogen oxides, which create smog; tiny soot particles, which can invade and collect in human lungs; mercury, a toxic metal that accumulates in animals, fish and the humans who eat them; and carbon dioxide, which many scientists believe is artificially warming Earth's atmosphere by trapping more heat from the sun.

JOHN J. FIALKA Wall Street Journal

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can't be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

ARTHUR C. CLARKE